These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. Passages marked “written by Marlbridge” are original; the lines from Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage (1895) and Charles Dickens’s Hard Times (1854) are in the public domain. The mark points are a suggested Marlbridge rubric, not an official scoring guideline. Allow about 45 minutes.
Question 1 (multiple choice · foundation)
Passage written by Marlbridge.
Her laughter was like a window thrown open in a stuffy room.
The simile most strongly suggests that her laughter is
- (A) loud and dangerous.
- (B) sudden, fresh and a relief after something oppressive.
- (C) quiet and secret.
- (D) cold and unwelcome.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). A window thrown open lets in air, and the “stuffy room” supplies the oppression it relieves.
- (A) has no support: windows are not dangerous here.
- (C) contradicts the suddenness of “thrown open”.
- (D) misreads the effect, which is one of relief.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
In Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage (1895), “The red sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer.” The simile most likely
- (A) glorifies the sun.
- (B) diminishes the sun, making it flat, small and artificial, and so conveys a detached and ironic view of the scene.
- (C) shows that the sun is hot.
- (D) proves that the sun is edible.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). A wafer is thin, flat and manufactured; “pasted” suggests that the sun is stuck on, not shining. The comparison strips the sun of grandeur.
- (A) is the opposite effect.
- (C) ignores the traits chosen: a wafer is not hot.
- (D) takes the simile literally.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
Passage written by Marlbridge.
The old stairs groaned their complaints as he climbed.
The personification most likely
- (A) shows that the stairs are literally alive.
- (B) is a flashback.
- (C) shows that the climber is in pain.
- (D) gives the stairs a weary, complaining voice, which conveys age and a faintly humorous or sympathetic attitude to the house.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (D). Human qualities (complaining) are assigned to the stairs, shaping mood and attitude.
- (A) takes the figure literally.
- (B) is wrong: no earlier time is presented.
- (C) shifts the sound to the climber and misses the figurative effect.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
Passage written by Marlbridge.
The clerk, a rubber stamp in a collar, descended on the papers.
The narrator’s comparison of the clerk to a rubber stamp most likely conveys
- (A) admiration for his creativity.
- (B) an attitude that sees him as mechanical and impersonal, defined by routine.
- (C) concern for his health.
- (D) that he is made of rubber.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Assigning the qualities of an object (a stamp: repetitive, impersonal) to a person conveys the narrator’s attitude to him.
- (A) is the opposite of what the comparison suggests.
- (C) has no basis in the text.
- (D) takes the figure literally.
Question 5 (multiple choice · core)
In Hard Times (1854), Dickens describes the piston of a steam-engine as working “monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness.” Which statement best explains the choice of the elephant?
- (A) Elephants are the largest animals, so the comparison shows size only.
- (B) The elephant’s heavy, repetitive motion and the human-like “melancholy madness” give the machine a suffering quality that suggests the human cost of monotonous industrial work.
- (C) It shows that Coketown contains a zoo.
- (D) It praises the engine’s strength.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The trait linking piston and elephant’s head is repeated, heavy motion; the added “melancholy madness” gives the machine a mood that reflects the human effects of the town.
- (A) reduces the simile to size, ignoring “monotonously” and “melancholy madness”.
- (C) takes the comparison literally.
- (D) misses the negative tone of “madness”.
Question 6 (multiple choice · stretch)
Which comment is the strongest analysis of the simile “The meeting dragged like a funeral procession”?
- (A) This is a simile.
- (B) It compares a meeting to a funeral.
- (C) By comparing the meeting to a funeral procession, the narrator emphasises its slowness and solemnity, and conveys a bored, mocking attitude to the officials’ self-importance.
- (D) It paints a picture.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). It names the traits (slowness, solemnity), the attitude (bored, mocking) and the target (the officials).
- (A) names the device only.
- (B) restates the comparison without interpretation.
- (D) is vague.
Question 7 (written response · core)
Passage written by Marlbridge.
Lady Corvin received her guests like a lighthouse receiving ships: she showed them where the rocks were and did not herself move. Her husband, who had been a fine barometer in his youth, now merely registered the weather in the room, rising at the mention of money and falling at the mention of anything else.
Write a paragraph of about 120 to 150 words explaining how the narrator’s figurative language conveys attitudes to the two characters.
Answer and explanation
Model response. The narrator’s comparisons present the Corvins as functions rather than people. Lady Corvin, the lighthouse, is fixed, bright and authoritative: she “showed them where the rocks were”, warning guests of social dangers, and “did not herself move”. The simile credits her with steadiness while hinting at rigidity and a lack of warmth. Lord Corvin is described in the language of an instrument: he “had been a fine barometer in his youth”, but now only “registered the weather”, “rising at the mention of money and falling at the mention of anything else”. Giving him the qualities of a device conveys a mocking, even pitying attitude: he has no opinions, only responses. Both comparisons suggest a marriage in which the characters have become tools.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (6 points).
| Point | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the lighthouse simile and the barometer comparison |
| 2 | Names a trait of the lighthouse (fixed, guiding, unmoving) with quotation |
| 3 | Names a trait of the barometer (registering, rising and falling) with quotation |
| 4 | Explains the attitude to Lady Corvin (respect mixed with irony about rigidity) |
| 5 | Explains the attitude to Lord Corvin (mockery or pity; he has become an instrument) |
| 6 | Uses precise quotation and clear analytic language |
Question 8 (written response · core)
Write a simile of your own that conveys comic sympathy for a nervous schoolboy standing before a class. Then, in two or three sentences, explain the objects you chose, the trait that links them and the attitude the simile conveys.
Answer and explanation
Model response. “He stood before the class like a candle in a draught, leaning one way and then the other, and determined not to go out.” The objects are a boy and a candle; the trait is flickering fragility combined with a small, stubborn persistence. The simile treats his nervousness as vulnerable and slightly comic, but “determined not to go out” gives him dignity, so the attitude is affectionate sympathy.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points). One point for a genuine simile that compares unlike things; one for naming the objects and the linking trait; one for explaining what the comparison suggests (the boy’s fragility or nerves); one for naming the attitude the simile creates and showing that the comparison fits it. Any original, well-explained simile earns credit.
Question 9 (written response · stretch)
Choose a passage from a public-domain work you have studied, or use Dickens’s Hard Times (1854), where Mr Gradgrind is described as “a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts” and the children as “little vessels” waiting to have “imperial gallons of facts poured into them”. In 120 to 150 words, explain what attitude the narrator conveys through these comparisons.
Answer and explanation
Model response (Hard Times). Dickens gives Gradgrind the qualities of a weapon: a cannon is heavy, rigid and made to discharge, and “loaded to the muzzle with facts” suggests a man who carries nothing but information and aims it at others. The children, by contrast, are “little vessels”, containers whose function is to be filled, and the image of “imperial gallons of facts poured into them” turns teaching into a process of pouring and filling. By giving a person the qualities of an object and the pupils the qualities of containers, the narrator conveys a satirical attitude: he condemns an education that treats minds as things and ignores imagination and feeling.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points). One point for identifying a comparison with a quotation; one for naming the trait of the object chosen (weapon, container); one for naming the attitude (satire, criticism); one for linking the comparison to the work’s wider concern. Any well-supported passage earns credit.
How did you do?
- 8 to 9 correct or well-supported answers: Move on to the Topic 7.7 study guide.
- 5 to 7: Re-read the five-step simile analysis and the personification table in the study guide and redo the written questions.
- 4 or fewer: Work through both worked examples again, then use the revision notes and checklist.